Authors in search of a literary agent are prone to ponder over the genre of their opus during the query process. Is it literary fiction? Historical fiction? Or could it be commercial fiction? Now there is a whole new genre - the commercial....fiction.
Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman, two marketing gurus who put together a YA shower of shite, have moved fiction to a new level. Yes, they have indeed found a way to turn a novel into a commercial through the art of product placement, a trick once reserved for movies and television. Clearly Mr. Weisman is no slouch in the literary world, not when he has the Creative Artists Agency to rep him. CAA is a big one, involved in marketing products as well as writers, and the link-up was a natural one.
The authors are actually partners in a marketing company, and had been working with Proctor and Gamble on other projects when a lightbulb went on over someone's head and they thought it would be brilliant to promote YA cosmetics in a YA novel. In lieu of a cash handout, Mr. Stewart and Mr. Weisman will obtain promotion for their book through P&G's website.
Sounding a bit like a mystery, the novel will have all sorts of references that link up with P&G's website, binding the book inextricably to a commercial for Cover Girl cosmetics. So there you have it, a YA commercial disguised as a book.
I don't know that it's so wise to encourage our young daughters to read after all. Perhaps there's something to be said for a classical education, get them translating from the Latin at an early age and bypass the crass commercial drivel altogether. Caveat emptor, my little darling.
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